Kahudi leads ASVEL to third straight win

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne improved to 3-1 in 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season Group C by downing Partizan NIS Belgrade 78-89 in the Serbian capital on Tuesday. ASVEL registered its third consecutive win – and first on the road, while Partizan fell to 1-3. Chalres Kahudi led the winners with 21 points, Amine Noua added 14, Eric Buckner 12 and Mantas Kalnietis tallied 11 points and 10 assists for ASVEL. Jock Landale led Partizan with 12 points, Stefan Jankovic, Aleksej Nikolic, Vanja Marinkovic and Marcus Page each scored 11 and Djordje Gagic 10 for the hosts.

Kalnietis and Kahudi shined early to give ASVEL a 6-12 lead. Noua stepped up right after that and a buzzer-beating three-pointer by A.J. Slaughter put ASVEL in charge 20-26 after 10 minutes. A dunk by Noua and back-to-back triples by Kahudi made it a double-digit game, 26-36, early in the second quarter. Noua and Kahudi kept pushing the visitors to lead 37-47 at halftime. A triple by Kalnietis and a layup by Buckner seemed to break the game open at 39-55 soon after the break. Landale and Marinkovic each struck from downtown in a 10-0 run that brought Partizan back to life, 49-55. Slaughter and Noua rescued ASVEL and free throws by Kahudi restored a 54-67 ASVEL margin after 30 minutes. Nothing changed after that and even though Partizan kept trying, ASVEL kept control. An off-balance layup by Buckner sealed the outcome at 66-80 with three minutes left.

Pivotal performer

Kalnietis reached double digits in assists for the first time in his EuroCup career. It was his first double-double, too, as he had 11 points. He only committed 1 turnover and added 3 rebounds, 3 steals and 4 fouls drawn for a performance index rating of 24.

Game-changing moment

Partizan went on a 10-0 run to get within 49-55 late in the third quarter. Slaughter and Noua stepped up to quickly restore a 52-65 margin and Partizan never recovered after that.

Stellar stat

ASVEL finished the game with 25 assists and 9 turnovers; that's an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.78. Partizan had 17 assists and 12 turnovers for a ratio of 1.42. In what undeniably was one of the biggest keys of the game, ASVEL took much better care of the ball.

Did you notice?

Kahudi set a new EuroCup career-high with 21 points. He averaged 6.6 points in 59 EuroCup career games before this season. He has scored in double figures in all four games this season and is now averaging 15.5 points for the campaign.

Head Coaches

CANAK, NENAD

Partizan NIS Belgrade

"We knew before the game how physical ASVEL is. We had a lot of problems in low post defense. They used their size against our guards, using Nelson against Paige, Nikolic and Marinkovic. After that, they made some shots and after the first half, in which we received 50 points, it was too tough to do something extraordinary good in the second half. ASVEL is a very good team, they are undefeated in the French League and played very well in the EuroCup. That's it. At this moment, they are a better team than us."

MITROVIC, ZVEZDAN

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

"I am really pleased and happy. I have coached for 25 years and this is my first game in which I am the head coach in an official game in Belgrade, against Partizan. I feel really, really happy about this. I think we played a good game tonight, controlling the game, I think, almost three quarters with strong defense and very smart offense."

Players

LANDALE, JOCK

Partizan NIS Belgrade

"I think we have a lot of things we need to keep working on. Obviously our on-ball defense and our post defense were two things that hurt us. I think once we get those things straight, we'll start making waves and string together some wins. I think we are coming along offensively. We have to get into the flow of the game quicker and get into our offense better. We have to be more aggressive on the offensive boards. But tonight it was all about low-post and on-ball defense. If we can straighten those things out, we'll be okay."

JANKOVIC, STEFAN

Partizan NIS Belgrade

"It was a very tough game. All credit goes to ASVEL, I think they played like a EuroLeague team. They played extremely tough on defense. Obviously we could have played a lot better, but we have to move on to the next game. Credit to ASVEL, it is a very, very strong team that played very well. We didn't play at our maximum level, that's how the game goes."

KALNIETIS, MANTAS

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne

"Every game is important. Now, in the EuroCup, we have only 10 games, so every victory is important, especially away, especially in this kind of tough gym that Belgrade has. For me, the most important is that we won and we now have good chances to qualify to the Top 16."